About Us

Building Actors and Leaders for Advancing Community Excellence in Development (BALANCED) is an exciting five-year Population, Health and Environment (PHE) technical leadership project. Launched in October 2008, it is led by the Coastal Resources Center (CRC) at the University of Rhode Island and draws on the extensive experience and expertise of its global partners, Conservation International (CI) and PATH Foundation Philippines, Inc (PFPI) and regional and local organizations. The award by the USAID Office of Population and Reproductive Health recognizes CRC’s long experience in international integrated natural resources management.

Building on a decade of USAID investments in PHE global leadership and field-based projects, BALANCED promotes wider adoption and use of PHE approaches by:

Building the capacity of local organizations and governments to plan, implement and deliver PHE programs through training, peer-to-peer mentoring, south-to-south exchanges, and innovative learning techniques

Synthesizing and developing state-of-the-art PHE knowledge and communicating this to key audiences, demonstrating the value of this integrated approach

Scaling-up and fostering implementation of PHE field initiatives in biodiversity-rich areas in East Africa and Asia—with an initial focus on Tanzania and the Philippines

BALANCED builds on past successes of the first generation of PHE activities funded by USAID and other donors and piloted in Madagascar, the Philippines, Kenya, Nepal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cambodia. It also incorporates the accomplishments of dynamic PHE networks in the Philippines, Madagascar, Tanzania and Ethiopia—where PHE professionals have successfully advocated for the PHE approach and its added value over single sector efforts. While continuing this advocacy, BALANCED will scale up and increase access to and the use of family planning and reproductive health services in remote, rural, and biodiversity-rich areas.